just watching the clouds…

I recently signed up to be an Independent Team Beachbody Coach. I first tried out P90x about a year and a half ago and completed a round of it. Then, I tried Chalean Extreme and have now done a couple of rounds of it. It has been my favorite so far. I added Brazil Butt Lift into my Chalean Extreme workout plan to really focus on my trouble area! *lol* I have enjoyed using these programs and really respect Beachbody for producing high quality, well-rounded programs that produce good results for those who put out the effort, those who aspire to the Beachbody motto: Decide. Commit. Succeed.

Beachbody is offering fee waivers to active duty military and spouses, so I thought, what do I have to lose? I love the company, have had personal success using a few of their programs, and love to talk fitness and nutrition, so it seems like the perfect fit for me. Less than 48 hours later, I have my first client! I am so excited to help her achieve better fitness and healthier living. We’ll be starting Turbofire, Chalene Johnson’s newest program, together in about a week. While I have been successful at getting healthier myself, I am also hoping that coaching will motivate me to do an even better job of achieving and maintaining a high level of fitness. I just hope I can keep up with the demands of coaching when school starts back. That’s really the only thing that I am apprehensive about.

to keep weight off, i’ve found that i have to make little tweeks to my diet to still eat some of the foods i love. one of the staples of my diet, especially since jamie has been gone, is cereal. i make a meal out of cereal quite often because it’s quick, easy, and i love it! :o) as i talked about in an earlier blog post, i’ve stopped drinking cow milk and now drink almond milk. recently, i tried out the unsweetened version, and it was good to my surprise! it is only 35 calories per cup! big difference! and that it isn’t overly sweet doesn’t even bother me. when i first began using it in my cereal, i’d add a little splenda to it, but i usually don’t even do that now. in fact, i pour up a glass of it and drink it straight. i really have come to like the taste of the unsweetened almond milk, so i’m glad i gave it a try.

another thing i love is pizza. one way i make it is to use tortillas for the crust. i also load up on veggies like spinach, olives (which have healthy fats in them, by the way), mushrooms, slices of tomato, etc., and stay light on the cheese. while i was browsing through walmart’s grocery department the other day, i came across Hormel turkey pepperoni. this stuff has 70% less fat that regular pepperoni. one serving of 17 slices has only 70 calories (only half what regular pepperoni has!) and 4 g fat (1.5 sat), whereas regular pepperoni has about 13 g fat per serving! straight out of the package, it tastes kinda like spicy beef jerkey, so i was skeptical about the taste on pizza, but when cooked with the other ingredients, it really does taste like pepperoni! yum!

those are a few of my low calorie tricks. do you have any you can share with us?

i watched this crazy movie the other night called “Catfish.” it caught my eye first because that’s my oldest brother’s nickname but also because i find some documentaries to be pretty interesting. 20 minutes in, and i could not turn the channel. it’s about this guy who befriends this family on facebook, and the youngest daughter is supposedly this awesome painter, so he starts buying her paintings and conversing with the family. it takes a sharp turn into an analysis about what we know about the people we associate with. the way i’m describing it doesn’t make it seem very interesting, i know *lol* but i’d give away the basis of the documentary if i give you any more details and delve into why it was so interesting. i think documentaries are an underrated form of entertainment. it’s like reality t.v. without all the cheesiness and hidden plot writing. if you haven’t seen “catfish,” check it out and tell me what you think. i can’t seem to get this movie out of my head! :oD

We hold our family reunion every year at Enid Lake. Several years back, an aunt of mine died that I had never met. After going to Varina’s funeral and spending the day with my dad’s side of the family, I realized that I was missing something by not knowing or spending time with these people. So I started our family reunions back up. The last Stone family reunion had been in 1984, when I was just four years old. I had very vague memories of a few of those reunions, playing with certain cousins and such. Those memories were as vague as old dreams.

This year’s reunion went pretty well. We had a pretty good turnout and lots of food. I made a ton of food. I always make too much! I cooked pot roast and corn casserole and made an Oreo pie and raspberry bars for dessert. And with cooking too much always inevitably comes eating too much. I still feel stuffed hours later. Okay, okay, so I did get into the leftover raspberry bars after I got home. I’m guilty.

Those few family members who usually get on my nerves didn’t irritate me today for some reason. I actually enjoyed talking to them and everyone else. I think it’s because I had such a yucky, bleak, and difficult week that spending time with anyone was a welcome comfort from sitting here alone and depressed. The most touching part of the day came at the end when several of the older folks gave me money to help pay for next year’s reunion. They were so appreciative of me taking the initiative every year and organizing the reunion. I could see the happiness in their eyes from having spent the day with loved ones they hardly ever get to see. It was so touching. It made all the time spent on the phone with the state park people (there had been rumors that with the plunging economy that Cossar State Park was going to shut down) and all the envelope licking and reunion notice folding worth it to see their smiles and get their hugs.

Family is so important. I think younger generations are losing that realization and undervaluing how important family unity is. We’re missing so much from not being around our elders regularly. But that’s a soapbox for another post one day.

I appreciate my family members, and that’s why I make sure we have our family reunions each summer.

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve posted a blog entry. May went by in a flash as it always does. And here is June, the month I’ve been waiting so long for. Hello, sweet June and an absence of disrespectful, moody teenagers! I have spent my days playing on the computer, soaking up the sun, watching movies, cooking, writing, playing instruments, and reading.

And yet, something doesn’t feel quite right. Without Jamie here, the house seems too quiet. I blast the t.v. or Itunes at odd times just to break the silence. I have no one to get up for, so I sleep too long in the mornings or take a nap at any slight yawn. What should be days of adventure and fun are turning into sleep fests that pass by with the shut of my eye. Only a little over a week into summer, and I’m getting cranky and restless. Maybe this is why my father won’t take up retirement…No one to hang out with, no place to go, nothing to look forward to. Now I get it, Dad.